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He had been convicted by a jury after a trial of two offences of sexually assaulting the ten-year-old child but was cleared of raping a 12-year-old girl a couple of years earlier.

Judge Andrew Menary, QC, pointed out that his comment was a “potential contempt of court” but he said he was taking no action about it and commended those in the public gallery for their restrained behaviour during the proceedings.

Jailing the 33-year-old father-of-one, he said that when Lloyd later thought about what he had done “you no doubt you realised you had gone too far because you attempted to buy her silence by giving her some money”.

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Lloyd was ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life and the judge imposed a sexual harm behaviour order - banning unsupervised contact with girls under 16 - for five years.

Anthony O’Donohoe, defending, said Lloyd has a diagnosis of being on the autistic spectrum and probably also has ADHD. He presents as “rather immature” and these factors will make his time in prison more difficult than for more sophisticated individuals.

He has no similar previous convictions and he will be affected by loss of contact with his baby daughter and his small family unit, he added.